Fairbanks, the transportation hub of interior Alaska.

• Author: Stricker, Julie

From sternwheelers and dog sleds in the early years, to airplanes, trucks, trains, and (in nearby Nenana) modern tugs and barges, Fairbanks continues to provide shipping services to much of Alaska's remote landmass.

Larry Shelver grew up near Puget Sound watching the ships and dreaming of a day he could be the man at the helm. When he was a teenager, he took a Pan American jet to a two-week job on the Tanana River ferry at Nenana.

His dream was coming alive. "It was come to Alaska and never leave," he says.

He moved on to bigger boats and worked his way up from mate to pilot to skipper, and then moved ashore to work as operations manager at Yutana Barge Lines. Now 54, Shelver is general manager of the barge line, which has been navigating Alaska waters since 1916.

Transportation is often difficult in Alaska's largely roadless Interior.

Sternwheelers and dog sleds were once the main freight carriers here, but both have long been supplanted by modern means. Fairbanks is the end of the line for the Alaska Railroad, but the beginning of road to the North Slope and Lower 48.

Recently, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. underscored Fairbanks' strategic importance when it announced plans to move nearly 275 families to the Interior as part of a reorganization designed to put personnel closer to pipeline operations. PTI Communications is also planning to build an office building in the city's downtown. Both companies are tapping into two of Fairbanks' greatest assets: a central location and easy access to the rest of the state, by road, air, rail and water.

Shelver grew up in the grand tradition of the steamboat pilots and is proud of his link to Alaska history. "We've been a part of the river for a long time," he says. "People depend on us and we depend on them."

The company's tugs seldom make the trip up the Tanana River to Fairbanks, but its barges carry fuel, equipment and other goods to 77 villages along the length of the Yukon River, its tributaries, and the coast from Nome to Seward.

According to the Alaska Department of Labor, 2,350 people are employed by the transportation industry in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. The agency defines transportation as trucking and warehousing, air transportation and communications. Any way you define it, transportation is vital to the Fairbanks economy, and to the economy of Bush villages.

Air Cargo

Off the river systems, villages rely on airplanes for cargo and transportation. More than a dozen air cargo companies flourish in Fairbanks, shipping everything from...